In desperate need of advice/reassurance!

Hello all, I'm not sure if this is the right place for this but I couldn't find a more suitable one so sorry in advance if so.

I'm a 20 year old male and for the past 4 months or so I have been suffering pain in the right side of my stomach and in my lower back also on the right hand side. It came and went infrequently, but it was bad enough to notice it was there. In recent weeks though the pain has became more severe; it radiates across my entire lower back and lower right side of my stomach. It also drifts down into my groin area and right the way down my right leg to the bottom of my foot.


In the time the pain has increased and spread, I've had bouts of fever and nausea and some days I don't eat at all due to simply not being hungry. Naturally I'm worrying that it could be cancer or something more sinister? I visited my GP today and he thought it was simply soft tissue inflammation. He gave me painkillers and told me to go and see him within two weeks if the pain had not subsided or gets worse. He quickly examined me and as he did so, my back and right leg went numb as he pressed on certain areas.

I'm having sleepless nights over this, I wake up having nightmares due to worrying that it's cancer or something more serious. Is there anyone who has experience of something similar or would have knowledge of what it might be? I would greatly appreciate any response.

Thank you, Luke.

Hi Luke and welcome to the forum. Sorry to see your having problems and please be aware we are NL qualified to make a diagnosis. We are just a group of people living with chronic pain of various sorts who try to share our experiences.

I too am curious as to what if any tests he did to determine a soft tissue inflammation. I was leaning towards some back problem involving the sciatic nerve and the nausea and no appetite can be caused by your pain or worrying but the fever has me worried some as it doesn't fit well.

I know its hard but you have to calm the run away thoughts of deadly diseases as its really slim it would be such. If its spinal in nature your worrying and lack of sleep and being tense will add to your pain.

If you can try getting in to a neurologist as you definitely need some pics. If your fever is getting too high that's the time to seek the emergency room help so they can get some blood work done.

Again welcome and make sure you get another opinion if your that worried

He said that if painkillers and rest don't cure the problem then he will refer me to a skeletal/muscular professional and also do some bloods then. The numbness around my lower back and legs worried me so much today when I was in the surgery, before that I was just thinking as you said sciatic nerve but would it cause so much pain in so many different places?

The pain down my leg is much more severe in my knee than anywhere else if that means anything. Just wish I knew what it was so I could treat it no matter how bad and get on with my life!

I had a ruptured disk that caused pain in my back, abdomen, and pain/numbness down one leg. I would see if I could get an MRI